Change in skin color

Question
We have 2 male rats that have been seperated recently due to constant fighting.  My question is for Dexter, a dark grey rat that is about a year old.  We just recently came back from vacation and I noticed that Dexters skin under his fur on his back has an orange/reddish look to it.  I don't see any sores around this area.  I am the one that cleans their cage etc. on a regular basis, but while we were gone our young boys took care of it.  I think they only cleaned the cages once during that 10 day time.  I don't want to take him to the vet if I don't have to as my husband doen't love the rats like we do.  My kids and I absolutely love Dexter so we want to help him out asap before it goes any farther.  Any ideas would be wonderful as we are worried about our little guy.  Thank you!

Answer
The fact that Dexter is about a year old tells me allot. At this age he has already become an adult, and adult male rats produce a lot of oil from their skin. It's very possible for this oil and for their surrounding environment to give their skin an orangy tinge. If you are super concerned a little bath won't hurt at all :) Just keep the water out of the ears / eyes. I recommend using a tear free baby shampoo. I use Sauve tear free watermelon shampoo for kids on my ratties.

I have one rat named MOnroe that even after thousands of baths in his lifetime, since he was about a year old- he has had orangy skin. In my own opinion this does not mean illness but actually is just something that happens to boy rats. You might not have even noticed this, but often times males will literally sit in their urine... Not pretty and certainly not a good skin conditioning treatment :)

Things with the skin you should be concerned about would be bumps, lumps, cuts, scrapes, scabs, sores, and loss of fur. Many things cause all of those, but most commonly are lice and mites and food allergies. Try a bath and check for scabs. Also look for little white flakes or red specs in the fur. These would be lice or mites. But in my years of owning rats I have never been able to connect the orange tinge of a males skin to mites or lice so I don't think you should have a thing to worry about :)

Please let me know if you have any other questions at all! I hope I was able to help you and your orangy little guy lol.